de Meeûs T, Michalakis Y, Renaud F
Laboratoire de Parasitologie Comparée, UMR 5555 CNRS, Université Montpellier II, Place E. Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier, Cedex 05 France.
Parasitol Today. 1998 Jan;14(1):10-3. doi: 10.1016/s0169-4758(97)01163-0.
As is the case for free-living species, a very large number of parasitic species are not described adequately by the biological species concept. Furthermore, Thierry de Meeûs, Yannis Michalakis and François Renaud argue that because hosts represent a highly heterogeneous and changing environment as well as a breeding site, favouring the association of host-adaptation and host-choice genes, sympatric speciation may occur frequently in parasitic organisms. Therefore, parasites appear to be ideal biological models for the study of ecological specialization and speciation. Beyond the relevance of such considerations in fundamental science, the study of the origin and evolution of parasite diversity has important implications for more applied fields such as epidemiology and diagnosis.
与自由生活的物种一样，生物物种概念并不能充分描述大量的寄生物种。此外，蒂埃里·德·默斯、亚尼斯·米哈拉克is和弗朗索瓦·勒诺认为，由于宿主代表了一个高度异质且不断变化的环境以及一个繁殖场所，有利于宿主适应基因和宿主选择基因的关联，同域物种形成可能在寄生生物中频繁发生。因此，寄生虫似乎是研究生态特化和物种形成的理想生物学模型。除了这些考虑在基础科学中的相关性之外，对寄生虫多样性的起源和进化的研究对流行病学和诊断等更应用领域具有重要意义。
